Pakistan's COVID-19 positivity rate under 5% for first time in a month

• Country reports only 2,465 new COVID-19 cases during last 24 hours.
  
• Decline in fresh cases pushes country's coronavirus positivity rate down to 4.97%.
  
• Pakistan witnesses hike in daily COVID-19 death count as 49 people succumb to virus.
  

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's COVID-19 positivity ratio dropped below 5% after over a month as only 2,465 new infections surfaced in the last 24 hours, National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) data showed Wednesday morning.

According to NCOC, 2,465 people were found infected with coronavirus after 49,553 diagnostic tests were conducted countrywide. The decline in fresh cases pushed the country's coronavirus positivity rate down to 4.97%.

However, a rise in Pakistan's daily COVID-19 death count was reported as 49 more patients succumbed to the virus overnight, placing the total number of deaths at 29,877.

Meanwhile, country's active case count stands at 73,029 and the overall case count at 1,491,423.

COVID-19 restrictions extended in six cities till Feb 21

After witnessing a drop in the positivity ratio of COVID-19 in the country, the NCOC on Tuesday decided to extend the already enforced coronavirus curbs only in the cities with COVID-19 positivity rate higher than 10% till February 21.

The forum reviewed the overall coronavirus situation in the country and cities with high disease prevalence in detail and announced to keep the coronavirus-related restrictions in place in the cities and districts where the COVID-19 positivity rate is higher than 10% for at least three days.

Read more: What are the COVID-19 restrictions in cities with over 10% positivity 

The cities/districts where the restrictions will remain imposed are as follows:

• Gilgit
• Muzaffarabad
• Mardan
• Karachi
• Hyderabad
• Peshawar

The NCOC said that the restrictions will be reviewed again on February 21 and directed all the concerned authorities to notify about the extension of restrictions at priority.